After training nearly 30 hours a week leading up to the 2012 Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, the local athlete knew once he finished that he had come up well short of his projected goal.

It took some advice from his wife, Heather, to realize how ridiculous his disappointment was.

“Honestly, my wife told me to pick my chin up and be proud of myself,” Neville, 38, said. “When she did that I started to understand what I accomplished. I’m just so competitive. When I go to an event I want to race it. She made me realize that at least I did it my way. I gave it everything I had.”

Neville finished the 2.4-mile Waikiki rough-water swim, 112 miles of the Around-O’ahu bike race and the 26.2-mile Honolulu marathon in 10 hours, 28 minutes and 43 seconds on Oct. 13.

That was good for 641st overall out of the nearly 2,000 competitors. Dirk Bockel, Neville’s close friend who spends time in St. Augustine, was 10th in 8:36.21.

Bockel, though, is a former Olympian who runs professionally. For Neville, who works as an accountant, just surviving one of the world’s most difficult events was a major accomplishment.

And for much of the race, he was doing a lot more than that.

“I went out and went for the gold,” he said. “That’s how I have to race. I had worked my way up to the point where I could see the front of the field, as far as the amateurs were concerned. Nobody was passing me for a while, until I started to struggle a bit.”

Right up until night before the race, conditions were shaping up perfectly for Neville.

Then, the wind and humidly arrived, seemingly in a matter of hours.

It was nearly 90 degrees when Neville leapt into the water to start the race, and winds were reaching 40 MPH on the bike course.

Still, Neville managed to get off to a solid start. He said he thought the swim went well until he heard the time: 1:13:45 — about eight minutes slower than he planned. But seeing as that’s typically his worst event, Neville figured he could pick up the pace on his bike.

And in many ways, he did. He hit 52.4 MPH when the wind was at his back. To understand how gusty it really was, he could only reach 18 MPH when he was driving into it.

“I probably over did it a bit on the bike,” Neville said. “There were times when I was just flying and others when that wind was so tough.”

Neville started to feel his hamstrings cramp when he was putting on his shoes for the run. He took some salt and got in a rhythm until he hit the 10-mile mark. That’s when he started to tighten up again. Neville went from running a pace of just less than seven minutes a mile, to 13. That’s when runners started putting him in their rearview.

Between the 12- and-13-mile mark, after pushing himself, he decided to let go of his goals.

“I went from racing it to just trying to finish. I wanted to just enjoy the mystique of Hawaii and take in the scenery,” Neville said.

Neville, however, had one competitive streak left in the tank. He didn’t want to run a four-hour marathon, so he burst down the final 1.2 miles in 6:57.

“I had to push it,” Neville said. “I wasn’t going to run a four-hour marathon. I’m proud of myself that I was able to push it down the stretch.”

It was never really Neville’s intention to become an Ironman. He raced in the Ironman Florida last November after registering to support a friend. He ended up finishing sixth in his age group and qualifying for the Hawaii event. For any endurance athlete, turning that opportunity down wasn’t really an option.

“People said ‘Now that you made it, you have to go,’” he said. “So I started training.”

Neville said his first trip to Hawaii will also be his last. Well, at least for competitive reasons.

“I’m pretty content,” Neville said. “I have a 5-month-old (baby). There was a lot of sacrifice on my wife’s part. I owe so much of this race to her. I was training 25 to 30 hours a week and she was left taking care of the baby. Now, it’s time for me to give back.”